Tag Archives: Agriculture

It’s been quite a while since I wrote a post. I’ve been busy sorting things out in my head and my heart.

Three guideposts I use when I think about what and how to write:

Words should be kind, necessary and true.

Ole Golly Waldenstein’s advice to Harriet in Harriet the Spy: “Remember that writing is to put love into the world, not to use against your friends. But to yourself you must always tell the truth.”

It has to have some humor.

I certainly wasn’t optimistic myself about the appointees for the new administration, especially as it relates to food. But, there was nothing to write about until actual people had been appointed.

What made me decide this was necessary was a comment from one of my children’s teachers that she thought the new administration was going to enhance organic food production and made standards better. Talk about fake news.

Jeff Sessions. Open supporter of the Monsanto-Bayer merger. He voted for the DARK act, and after his appointment as Attorney General, Monsanto stock has steadily risen.

Sonny Perdue. He’s been tapped to be Secretary of Agriculture. Former Georgia governor, and huge fan of Big Ag, complete with campaign contributions from Monsanto. He’s most famous in the organic communities for signing legislation in 2009 prohibiting standards for poultry farms, and a good weighing in by industry experts (on both sides) is here.

Sigh.

Right after the election, I was talking to a dear friend about going to Whole Foods. She related a story about how clients will sometimes ask her,

“Doesn’t it stress you out because everything’s so expensive?”

“Actually, it’s the opposite. It’s the only place I can f&*cking relax,” she replied.

I’m going to advocate something very Republican. Now more than ever, the choices we make with our pocketbooks are crucial. Look what happened with Nordstrom. Money makes the world go around, and we don’t buy clothes with nearly the frequency we buy food.

So here’s my game plan:

Buy organic, buy organic, buy organic.

Support establishments that stock locally sourced food, big and small.

Find a local farm, and sign up for a CSA. That’s meat and veggies. We need to staunchly support what we have now because if the current administration succeeds in making the changes it wants to, even if we are able to make a change in four years, they might have already dismantled too much.

By the way, if you were looking for the funny part, it was the story about Whole Foods. That’s all I got.